


Desperate Enough

by jackabelle73



Series: Dark Castle Days (and Nights) [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 18:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14526426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackabelle73/pseuds/jackabelle73
Summary: The opening scene of "Skin Deep" wasn't the first time Belle of Avonlea met the Dark One.





	Desperate Enough

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place right after Belle returns from her journey to Arendelle in "Family Business."

“…if that means summoning Rumplestiltskin, then so be it.”

“No,” Maurice said firmly. “We’re not going to summon Rumplestiltskin. He’s the Dark One, infamous for his deals. No one who deals with him comes out ahead. It’s not worth it, Belle. I forbid you to summon him or even speak of it again.” With that, he strode to the door and paused. “Get some sleep, Belle. For once in your life, do as I tell you and just go to bed. There’s a war council in the morning, and we’ll decide how to win this war. Please, leave the heroics to the men.”

The door creaked shut behind him and she heard a heavy bar being lowered into place, just as it had when her father locked her away in here after her mother’s death. He hadn’t said he was locking her in! She rushed over and tried the door but it didn’t budge. She knew better than to plead with the guards that were surely posted on the other side. They were her father’s men, or possibly Gaston’s. No matter who they answered to, they would have been given strict orders to protect what their commander considered to be his. Whether by birth or by marriage, she belonged to a man.

She turned away after giving the door a kick and started unpacking the bag she’d brought back with her, with jerky movements. Before long she was unpacked, her room tidied, and she’d changed into her nightgown. She was ready for bed but knew she’d never find sleep in her current state of agitation. She wandered the room aimlessly, just touching items and then abandoning them. She opened one of her favorite books to a random place in the middle, then closed it again without reading a single word. Setting it back on the shelf, she retrieved the map she’d used for her journey to Arendelle.

She spread it out on the table as a thought occurred to her. If the ogres had made it as far as the road, how had she gotten home unharmed? Granted, she’d taken back roads, knowing that if anyone traveling the main road on official business recognized her, she’d be hauled back to the castle to face her father’s wrath. Turned out to be a moot point anyway, but she had hoped to sneak back in while he was asleep.  But even on the back roads, how had one solitary girl slipped through when the armies of men could barely hold the ogres back from further advancement?

She smiled as the answer became obvious to her. Of course…. she’d escaped notice precisely because she was only one girl. No one took notice of her, not the ogres, and not the armies. So maybe she could use this to her advantage.  Why shouldn’t one girl be able to make a difference?

She straightened up from where she’d been bent over the map, resolved. Better to do it now before she lost her nerve. According to legend, saying the Dark One’s name three times would summon him.

“Rumplestiltskin,” she said clearly to the empty room. “Rumplestiltskin, Rumplestiltskin!”

She waited, but nothing happened. Were the stories of how to summon him false? Or was it the reputation of how powerful he was that had been exaggerated, and he was too far away to hear her? Or…she flushed in anger as another possibility occurred to her. Was he not responding because she was female? Did he make his deals only with men? She wasn’t going to stand for that.

She stamped her foot and said louder, “Rumplestiltskin, Rumplestiltskin, Rumplestiltskin!”

There was the creak of the bar being lifted from outside her door and it opened, and a guard stepped inside. Belle was suddenly aware that she was dressed only in a flimsy nightie, hardly proper attire for a strange man to see her.

“How dare you!” she snapped, turning away to retrieve her dressing gown. She kept her back turned as she put it on, angrily tying the sash. “You have no right to barge into my private chamber without invitation!”

“Apologies, Lady Belle,” he said, his eyes studiously focused not on her but over her head. He was one of Gaston’s men, she realized, her heart sinking. If her father had allowed her fiancé to take over the duty of protecting her, then the exchange of ownership had already begun.

“Who were you talking to?” the guard asked, still not looking directly at her.

“To myself, who else would I be talking to when locked in a room by myself?” she answered coldly. “Now go, and never enter this room without warning again.”

“Yes, milady.” The guard scanned the room over once, before he bowed and exited.

“Well, you told him, didn’t you dearie?” a cackling voice said from behind her.

She spun around and stared at the small man leaning insolently against her desk, who hadn’t been there a moment before. He was the strangest human she’d ever seen, with dark greenish skin and eyes that reminded her of a reptile she’d seen once.

“You’re Rumplestiltskin,” she breathed. Glad now that the guard’s intrusion had prompted her to put on her robe, she tugged the panels together to be sure she was covered.

“The one, and only!” he exclaimed, twirling his hands as he bowed. “Milady.”

“You heard my call.” Rumplestiltskin was standing in her bed chamber, and she could hardly believe it.

“You do like stating the obvious, don’t you?” He looked up at her from his low bow before standing up and steepling his fingers, regarding her over them. “Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know?”

For a moment she could only stare at him, still captivated by his strange appearance. Had he been born that way, she wondered? Or was it the result of some horrible accident, perhaps a spell gone wrong? His appearance wasn’t displeasing to her, just so…. _odd_. She realized he’d asked a question.

“Excuse me?” she asked to cover her embarrassment.

“I’m starting to wonder if you should be excused,” he shot back. “Bit soft in the head, seems to me. Can’t even hold a conversation.”

“I beg your pardon?” she sputtered, indignant. “I can hold a conversation just fine, thank you! But it’s not every day a, a— _whatever_  you are, appears in my bedroom!”

“I didn’t just appear, dearie. You summoned me.”

“Yes,” she said, realizing she needed to focus. “I need–”

“Uh-uh-uh.” He shook a finger at her, reminiscent of a mathematics tutor she’d once had. “Not so fast. I haven’t decided if you’re someone I can make a deal with. I don’t deal with the mentally incompetent.”

Incompetent? Belle tried to think of a suitable retort, but in the few seconds that she hesitated, realized that he was baiting her. No good would come of taking his bait. Instead, she swallowed down her indignation and spoke calmly.

“And how shall I prove my competence to you?”

“Hmm.” Rumplestiltskin clasped his hands behind his back and meandered for a moment around the room, finishing in front of her bookcase, which covered most of a wall. “You seem to have quite a few books here; have you read them all?”

“Most of them,” Belle said, with quiet pride. She was likely the most well-read young woman in all of Avonlea, and she knew it. And better educated than the soldiers, too. Even the court scholars sometimes had trouble keeping up with her, when discussing the latest scientific findings or philosophy.

“So why don’t you tell me about the one open on the table behind you?” he asked.

She’d forgotten there was a book there. Turning, she saw the one he was talking about.

“That’s a book of fairy lore,” she said. “I was translating it.”

“You read fairy language?” He turned to look at her, interest apparently piqued.

“Some,” she admitted. “My mother was starting to teach me, before…before she passed away.” She was proud that her voice only wavered a little, but his sharp look told her that he’d heard it. Before he could question her about it, she asked, “Do you read fairy?”

“No.” The single syllable dripped contempt. “Never bothered learning insect language. Tell me about the guards outside your door.”

“What about them?” she asked, thrown off by his sudden change of topic.

“Why would a mere slip of a girl like you, warrant two guards to keep her in her chamber?”

“They’re here to…protect me from the ogres,” she improvised. She hardly wanted to discuss her disagreement with her father with this stranger.

“No they’re not!” he exclaimed, followed by a high-pitched, trilling giggle. “You, missy…” he circled one long black fingernail at her… “are a really awful liar. Tell me why they’re really there.” He leaned back against the bookcase, arms folded and waiting.

“Fine. They’re there because I went on a journey without my father’s permission, looking for information about my mother’s death. Now, neither my father nor my fiancé trust me to stay here and do as I’m told, so my father locked me in here and my fiancé posted guards at the door.”

Head tilted, he blinked his strange eyes twice before asking, “Did you find the information you wanted, about your mother?”

She shook her head, feeling exhaustion spread over her like a blanket. “No. My journey…didn’t go as planned.” She could still hear Anna’s cries for help. “I have nothing to show for it but a loss of freedom.” She sat down at her desk, her gaze falling on the book she’d had since she was small, the one her mother had read aloud to her. Being a hero seemed so much simpler in books. She was startled from her introspection by Rumplestiltskin’s voice, very close as he leaned over her desk and spoke softly.

“If you want out of this room, you can have it—for a price.”

“I didn’t call you here for me!” she snapped at him. Did he really think her so shallow, that she would call the dreaded Dark One just to avoid a bit of personal inconvenience? Morning would come and her father would let her out of here. She’d be closely watched, no doubt, but it wasn’t as if she’d be stuck in this room forever.

He stepped back, spreading his hands. “So you  _don’t_  want to escape your imprisonment?”

“Of course, I do! But I called you because–”

“Oh, I know. Your town is about to be overrun by ogres, and you want me to stop them.”

“How did you–”

“I’m the Dark One; I know many things. But it doesn’t take any magic to look out your window and see the sky turning red over the battlefield. No one calls me unless they’re desperate, and in my experience, ogres make people quite desperate.”

“Can you help?” she asked, hope flaring inside her.

“Of course I can!” he proclaimed. “The question is, why should I? What will I get in return?”

“My father will give you anything in our land that’s within his power to give! Just please, rid our land of the ogres before we’re all dead.”

“Your father?” He turned away from her, making an exaggerated show of looking around the room. “I don’t see him in here.”

“Yes, well…he didn’t want to call you. But I’m sure if he were here, he’d negotiate for your help.”

“But he’s not here. And he didn’t call me, you did.” He spun neatly on his heel, facing her fully and coming closer again with nimble steps. “I don’t negotiate for my services through third parties. All I need….is one…desperate…soul.” His eyes bored into hers. “How desperate are you, princess?”

She stared back at him, and for the first time since he appeared in her chamber, she was frightened. What would he want of her, in exchange for his help?

“Hmm,” he gave a high-pitched hum as he turned away. “You’re not there yet.”

“Wait, don’t go,” Belle pleaded. “I’ll do anything to save my people!”  

“No, you won’t. Not yet. Call me again when you decide just how desperate you are, dearie.” With that, he twirled his hand and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Belle stood alone in her bed chamber, dismissed by yet one more man who thought her not worth his time, and seethed silently. It was hours before she was calm enough to sleep, hours that she spent looking out the window at the distant battlefield where her people were giving their lives, while she was safe behind stone walls.

No more, she decided. Her mother had saved her life by standing between her and the ogres, and she would not let her mother’s sacrifice be for naught. She would attend the war council with her father in the morning, and find a way to contribute to the war effort…even if it meant putting herself between her people and the approaching slaughter.

Even if it meant calling the Dark One again.

**Author's Note:**

> This was previously published on AO3 as part of a different collection, but I realized that since first posting them, all three of those short fics fit better as part of other series. So I'm just moving some fics around and getting them better organized.


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